What is escheat and when does an Ontario estate actually end up going to the provincial Crown?

"Escheat" is what happens when a person dies without a will and without anyone legally entitled to inherit under Ontario's intestacy rules - no spouse, no children, no parents, no siblings, and no more distant relatives within the degrees the law recognizes. When that happens, the estate's property vests in the Ontario Crown under the Escheats Act, 2015, rather than sitting with no owner at all.

In practice, escheat is rare and treated as a last resort, not a first response. Before an estate is treated as having no heirs, a genuine search for next of kin normally has to be exhausted - this is where genealogical or heir-tracing research often comes in. Once no heir can be found, the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee typically becomes involved in administering what remains, on the Crown's behalf.

For families, the practical lesson is that even a distant relative can defeat an escheat if they can be found and can prove the family connection. If you believe a deceased relative died without a will and without any closer heirs, the first step is finding out whether a genealogical search has already been done, and by whom, before assuming the estate is lost to the Crown.